I am passionate about a few topics when it comes to work and business. Those topics are helping people get control of their business through strategy and execution, referral marketing, client experience and their own personal productivity.

I’ve built my business helping solopreneurs and micro-small business owners take control so they can make more money and find more time. One of my best decisions a few years ago was to become a certified Productivity and Time Efficiency Coach. It helps me work smarter and helps me help my clients work smarter. Let’s be honest…when you are running a company by yourself or with a small team you don’t have a choice but to work smart.

The problem with over-achievers isn’t that you strive to hit 200% of your monthly sales quota every month or push the team to hit the million or multimillion mark year over year.

The problem with over-achievers isn't that you give it your all on the process improvement task force or the social committee at work.

The problem with over-achievers isn't that you try to be the best board chair, ushering in change to your organization as you try to take the organization to a new level.

The problem with over-achievers isn't that you spend hours creating the perfect birthday party for your child complete with handmade invitations.

The problem with over achievers is that you try to do all of these things...at once. There aren't four different over-achievers described above...there is only one (maybe it’s you). And that is the problem.

We mutter it as we begin to re-enter work after a vacation on either the night before we head back to work or the morning of our first day back at work…the emails that need to be tended to seem endless, the phone calls that must be returned have stacked up, the co-workers are lurking because they can finally get your attention and the work is just hanging out…waiting for you.

Last week I wrote the first half of this series on understanding how to leverage your to do list system and I specifically focused on the hardware – the type of planner to buy. (If you missed it please check it out here.)

This post is focused on the guts of your system – how to arrange and organize so you can gain control and clarity. When incorporating a new to do list system you need to understand that you may not get it exactly right the first time.

When I work with a client on creating their system we go into the process expecting to tweak what we designed as they start using it. You create in theory, you tweak in reality. Now this doesn’t mean we aren’t diligent in trying to get it right the first time, but the reality is how you think you will use it may be different from how you actually use it when you put it into practice.